DHT’s ‘Funny Girl’ Has Some Familiar Faces

For Diamond Head Theatre’s fall musical, picture an aspiring performer with looks outside the typical Broadway mold who nevertheless drawn to show business, where she falls for a handsome gambler.

That’s the setup for Funny Girl, a musical in which life echoed art by rocketing young singer Barbra Streisand to Academy Award success in the lead role and launching her acting career.

A bit of trivia that not everyone may know is that before Streisand had her starring role in the 1968 film, she also played the lead in the 1964 Broadway show of Funny Girl.

Nearly 60 years later, the stage version of arrives at Diamond Head Theatre, with New York guest artist Isabelle Decauwert (a Kaiser High graduate and DHT veteran) headlining the show as Fanny Brice and Hawaii’s own Shari Lynn playing her mother. The story is based on the career of the real-life Brice, a stage and film star, and her troubled relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Expect some of the memorable tunes from People to Don’t Rain on My Parade.

Funny Girl plays Sept. 21 to Oct. 7 — at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with 3 p.m. matinees Sept. 29 and Oct. 6, and 4 p.m. Sundays. A Talk Back Discussion is scheduled for Sept. 30 after the show. Tickets cost $15-$35. For more information, call 733-0274 or visit diamondheadtheatre.com.